Vaporware

As services start dominating economies globally, one wonders whether human activity is creating more 'vaporware' than anything real and useful! 

High speed algorithmic trading now accounts for half the trading volumes in American stock exchanges. Some of the world's most valuable companies are those that help people share frivolous videos and pictures, those that search and find information that exists already, those that allow people to communicate in very few characters the latest gossip going around!

Once in a while, you hear of technologies that help extract gas from rocks and reduce fossil fuel consumption. But mostly it's sharing cat videos and celebrity bling.

As golf's popularity wanes, the innovation there is to kick foot balls into large holes!!! Is that real progress? Where has all the ingenuity gone? Have the minds become numb from watching silly videos and inane tweets?

Life is short, world is small

In business and competitive world, backstabbing, back biting, scheming, talking behind one 's back, politics are unfortunate realities.

But life is short and world is small. You never know when you need help from someone and how long this life lasts!

Is it worth burning bridges and holding grudges?

In the long run, you might see the current disturbances as mere blips in bigger scheme of things.

Forgive and forget - for your own mental peace at least!

Be nice to people no matter what they are or how critical they are to you right now.

Share without expecting something in return always!

Pass on your learnings to others so they start ahead and not go through the evolution!

Be a net giver rather than a taker!!!

Jumping the hoops

As MOOC (massive open online courses) get popular and world gets more integrated thanks to internet, the traditional steps of learning process get blurred.

With global best practices and learnings become available much easier than ever, opportunities to jump the hoops covering multiple steps at once become available.

If the learning includes leveraging others ' experiences instead of academic approaches alone, you can learn two or three steps at a time and move ahead.

Let's take an example : suppose you want to open restaurant. In the traditional route, you may want to work in a restaurant and experience things first hand and then decide to start small. In the connected world, what if you are able to connect with other  restaurateurs and learn from their experiences as well?

You can jump multiple steps in your evolution as a restaurateur and start much ahead. 

Can you apply this to your area of interest?

Emotions in Business life

I have heard of a story ( apparently true) that a famous builder in Mumbai India hired an American as part of procurement which all of us are sure is an extremely critical function in a real estate firm.

This American then found a supplier from Pakistan who could export cement to India at a landing price that is half of the local produce!!!!

Can you imagine an Indian doing this? What gives? Emotion taking over in business decision making.

What an Indian would consider unpatriotic an American finds a simple clear business decision.

Leaving out the countries above, the point to glean is the aspect of emotion clouding or decision making.

Some times a fresh neutral perspective is most needed!!

Future proof skilling

Some shocking revelations first.

About 47% of employment in the US is likely to become extinct due to technology replacing them in the next decade or two. 

Over the last century, mostly three items' prices went up in real terms- housing , education and health care. Pretty much everything else had its prices come down in real terms.

Implications?

Skilling for the future is significantly impacted by the above. Most or at least half of what we do today will get automated. And if your skilling is in an area of declining prices, you are bound to face the heat sooner than later.

Is your skilling relevant to the three areas of increasing prices as listed above?

How flexible are you to reskill if your current one becomes extinct?

Most importantly, can you leverage the future's new opportunities as they appear instead of clinging onto the old and dying?

How 'Big Data' person are you?

Technology tries to mimic and automate human behaviour and those who get it right, succeed!

In a sense, the key attribute of 'Big Data' is key to success for you as a leader, human being, team player...

Big Data looks at disparate , unstructured data from multiple sources to identify patterns, deductions, conclusions or insights.

If you need to be successful, you need to do the same - connect data points from multiple sources/instances/events/contexts to bring together a perspective/insight that nobody has seen before. 

The more you master this to an art form, the more successful you would be , in any endeavour - a job, a business, an initiative/program or a project.

Go ahead and acquire/sharpen your 'Big Data' skills - not the technology but the underlying concept!

Value and Risk

Is your proposition addressing value or risk or both ?

In today's world of increasing uncertainity, regulatory compliance, failed deliveries on commitments, customers are bearing you on risk first and value later. 

Who or what among my options is the least risky? Can manage my risks best? Can manage my organisational risks best? 

These are top of mind compared to value and RoI for simple reason that no one faces a regulator, auditor , scrutiny for lower value/RoI delivered.

Is your risk proposition stronger than your value proposition?

What defines you?

What defines you?

A title, a role , numbers, teams , colleagues , superiors , team members ....?

You start much earlier and end much later than any of the above.

So what / who defines you? 

100ft vs 50000ft

Is it possible for someone to have both these views? At 100ft and at 50000ft? 

You miss the details at 50000ft and you miss the big picture at 100ft. Both are needed for success.

How do you get both the views and get the balance ?

One way to do this is first get the hundred feet view and then check to see whether it meets all the objectives and requirements. You need to be objective and dispassionate to ensure 'proper' checking.

You can also do the 50,000 feet view and then get into details to make sure all the objectives and requirements are met.

The typical mistake people do is take one view and ASSUME that it meets the requirements of the other view. More often than not it doesn't and we end up finding it the hard way!

As one looks at taking bigger responsibilities , achieving this balance becomes more and more critical.

Initially you can request your friends or colleagues to help you get this balance so that over time you inculcate this habit.

 Remember! Plans that meet only one view's requirements are bound to FAIL!

Why successful people fail?

Why do people successful in one organisation fail in the next ?

What makes someone successful ? the individual or the system ? Or combination?

Organisations hire people for certain skills and strengths. But many a time it's the combination of skills from multiple people and ecosystem that makes a an individual successful.

People tend to have an exaggerated sense of self importance and a lower sense of ecosystem contribution to success. This is what makes them fail or underperform in other ecosystems.

That reverse also happens. 

Somebody who underperforms in an ecosystem may perform much better in another.

It is important to understand is dynamic before making deductions on one's critical success factors.

Advisory

Globally Service Economy is the biggest in most countries compared to manufacturing or agriculture.   If you are providing a service in the market place, one of the most effective ways to bring /retain customers is to a 'Trusted Advisor'.

Consulting companies have mastered this almost to an art form.  The basic principle is to offer unbiased expert advise ( not asking for anything in return) on client problems. Some of these problems may be known and some may be unknown.

A true consultant offers this advice to clients to help prevent/navigate/resolve the problems in an effective way. When this happens, client reposes their trust with the consultant in their times of crisis.

If you are in the service industry, how well are you regarded as a 'Trusted Advisor' to your clients who may or may not be hiring you?

Do they think of you as the 'go-to' person for advice/help in their times of need?

What would it take to build this skill and reputation as a 'Trusted Advisor?

Positivity and Perseverance

"When you are searching for honey , you must expect to be stung by bees!"

Honey is sweeter when it the path to get it is tougher and is ridden with obstacles.

Many careers and jobs need the two qualities in the title to become successful.

Whether you are trying to create a new product/offering to differentiate, whether you are trying to crack open a customer account , whether you are trying to find the right job that satisfies you, whether you are trying to reach any goal worth pursuing....

Most often you would come across surprises, failures, obstacles, rejections, criticisms and so on....

Easiest reaction is to get demotivated, blame yourself, personalise failure, blame it on the world, give up.....

Pretty much every successful actor got rejected for roles early. Many successful executives have been fired from their companies. Most artists have seen failures as often as they see the sunrise.

Examples: Steve jobs ( fired from Apple), Amitabh Bachchan ( rejected by All India Radio), Sports team captains ( crucified for every failure), Film actors who struggle so much for their first break....

How did they react to these?

The famous names we hear today have all dusted up, changed course, altered their ideas, tried something differently and fought another day.

'Positivity and perseverance'   - truly valuable traits!